New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
xx Baby on Board
xx Bob Funk
62 Cherry Blossoms
38 Confessions of a Shopaholic
38 Crossing Over
38 Dark Streets
58 Defiance
45 Fanboys
31 Fired Up
37 Forever Strong
34 Friday the 13th
72 Gran Torino
47 He's Just Not That Into You
47 Inkheart
52 International, The
45 Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
50 Madea Goes to Jail
51 Morning Light
51 My Bloody Valentine 3-D
29 New in Town
28 Nobel Son
40 Outlander
39 Paul Blart: Mall Cop
56 Phoebe in Wonderland
36 Pink Panther 2
xx Powder Blue
69 Revolutionary Road
20 Spinning Into Butter
17 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
63 Tokyo!
74 Two Lovers
56 Valkyrie
91 Waltz with Bashir
22 What Goes Up

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

X-Men: The Last Stand
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation


6.1

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 289 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

GAMES:

X-Men: The Official Game (Xbox 360)

MPAA RATING: PG-13

Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, and Rebecca Romijn

In the climax of the X-Men trilogy, a "cure" for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, though it isolates and alienates them, or give up their powers and become human. (20th Century Fox)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Fantasy \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Zak Penn Simon Kinberg
DIRECTED BY:	Brett Ratner
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 3, 2006 Theatrical: May 26, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	103 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Also known as "X-Men 3"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Surprise, surprise. X-Men: The Last Stand, the third big-screen convocation of mutant shape shifters, weather changers, ice makers, energy suckers, healers and telepaths from Marvel Comics, has shifted the shape of the franchise from pretty good, if uninspired, to terrifically entertaining.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It delivers pretty much what's expected.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Ratner is unable to maintain the emotional intensity that has made this series so deeply epic. But he sure knows how to put on a show.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Love it or hate it, X-III packs more action and razzle-dazzle visuals into its 104-minute running time than "Mission: Impossible III," "Poseidon" and "The Da Vinci Code" combined.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The happiest news about the third (and final?) X-Men movie is actually quite sad: headstones. Yes, The Last Stand brings the lamentable deaths of several major characters.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I liked the action, I liked the absurdity, I liked the incongruous use and misuse of mutant powers, and I especially liked the way it introduces all of those political issues and lets them fight it out with the special effects.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

If this really is the last stand, it's a stylish farewell indeed.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Though the picture is not without its wow-inducing, SFX-driven moments, that potent X-factor is considerably diminished in Singer's absence.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

It's a fast and enjoyable B-movie, though, and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine brings some good stormy drama to the proceedings.

Variety Justin Chang

The result, though it delivers only in fits and starts, is still sharper and more inventive than most comicbook-adapted fare, and eventually gets the job done as far as action buffs are concerned.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

If little else, the third and supposedly final entry in the X-Men mega-franchise suggests that some movies -- or at any rate some formulas -- are not just critic-proof, they might even be director-proof.

Newsweek David Ansen

Ratner's version is friskier, shallower-and more fun.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Ratner seems to have found a theme that he can relate to: A terrifying trio of angry, undomesticated women who all but run away with the movie.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Whether the entry is good, great or (in this case) indifferent, it's always stimulating to return to the high-flying X-Men series.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

This is interesting stuff. So why does The Last Stand feel driven to dumb itself down, as if embarrassed by its own ideas?

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

I suppose it's asking too much of Ratner to impart some kind of visionary flourish to the proceedings. But without it, these comic-book movies all tend to look the same.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Has a couple of emotionally resonant scenes that build on the first two story lines. But it lacks the intriguing moody quality of the previous films. The mutants are more pumped up and angry this time, rather than misunderstood and conflicted.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Disappointingly, X-Men: The Last Stand slides back between the first two episodes. It's not stuporous, and it's not super.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

With more superheroes, more action and more stuff blowing up than ever before, X-Men: The Last Stand has the climactic oomph that suggests a finale, though not the gravitas to suggest a resolution.

Premiere Ethan Alter

Comic-book enthusiasts can breathe a sigh of relief: Brett Ratner hasn't completely ruined the X-Men series a.k.a. "The Franchise that Bryan Singer Built."

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

While I didn't love it, I enjoyed The Last Stand because it made me imagine the mutant powers I want to develop. I'm thinking along the lines of merging Rogue's suction abilities with Storm's controlled-rain skills.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

But for all the sound, fury and spectacle, the film feels vaguely hollow and unsatisfying.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Mostly about extending a Hollywood franchise with ever-diminishing returns.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Director Brett Ratner can't make chicken a la king out of chicken droppings, and that's what writers Simon Kinberg ("XXX: State of the Union") and Zak Penn ("Elektra") supply.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Only half a mess -- and even with all its flaws, it's an enjoyable diversion that shows both respect and affection for the formidable legacy of the "X-Men" comics.

Empire Dan Jolin

Singer's absence is felt but not fatal. By adding too much new blood Ratner loses some of the original DNA, but with its nifty set-pieces and a few nasty surprises, X3's still a worthy enough sequel to ensure it’s no Last Stand.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Following two superior entries, Ratner's slick placeholder of a sequel lacks that crucial X-factor called inspiration.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mostly, as so often with these types of empty entertainments, you are left to wonder why companies that hire so many fine actors to run around under latex and foam and have the best technological wizardry money can buy seem to spend so little attention to the screenplay.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Almost as mindless as "Fantastic Four," but more annoying in that this one has philosophical pretensions.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Despite all the grand gestures of climax and resolution, there's a pronounced sense of autopilot; the only person who seems to be having a good time is Ian McKellen as the scheming Magneto.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

There's much to enjoy here – Ratner's pacing is fluid and fast and the film rushes along its busy, cluttered way with something approaching melodramatic snarkiness – but it's also terribly busy and cluttered.

Slate Michael Agger

An uninspired hodgepodge.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Ratner makes a hash of the story and characters his predecessor brought to such complex, sympathetic life, delivering a pumped-up exercise in mayhem, carnage and blunt-force trauma.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Last stand? My ass. Billed as the climax of a trilogy, the third and weakest chapter in the X-Men series is a blatant attempt to prove there is still life in the franchise.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's a disappointing chapter in what until now has been a highly entertaining, even thought-provoking series.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Has a few high points, but feels far too disjointed and slapdash to favorably compare to what came before.

The New Yorker David Denby

What a comedown, after the weirdly beautiful things Singer and his technicians did in the first two movies.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Long before the movie's climax, in which Magneto (Ian McKellen) turns smashed-up automobiles into fiery projectiles to be hurled at his enemies, those in the audience will know what it means to behold a flaming hunk of junk.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 289 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jakob K gave it a6:
Nice special effects, but they killed scott :( that was really a breakdown for me. The "cyclops" is awsome. i dont know what happens in the comics to scott, do he die there too?

alex r gave it an8:
I liked this movie. It was very exciting and there was a genuine tension as to who would make it out alive in the end. It wasn't quite as good as X-2, which is a genre definer, but certainly a worthy addition to the X-men series. I thought it was better than the first movie too.

David V gave it a4:
This was definitely a step down from the previous X-Men. Gone is the character development, gone are the political allegories. The only thing worth watching in this movie is the action and some of the acting.

Eddie E gave it a0:
Bret Ratner ruined the series. He has no idea what the xmen are all about he just wanted some special effects. There was such a good foundation built by singer in the first two films.

Marc C gave it a7:
An exciting climax to the trilogy with some great moments. It needed to be longer with more depth and they should have cut out some of the minor characters. But, overall, I loved it - as an action-packed finale, it worked pretty well. Critics want everything to be Schindler's List or Atonement and as soon as you have movies about fantastic superpowers, that is not possible, so you have to embrace the fact this is a comicbook movie. It's far from perfect, but then no movie ever is, so I acceoted that,

Jerk Guy gave it a0:
This film and all the X-Men films are garbage, pure garbage, they should have called it “Wolverine and friends 1, 2 and 3”, the whole X-Men trilogy is a massive and monumental disappointment to me, I remember growing up as a child reading the comics and watching the cartoons fantasising about how awesome it would be if one day there was an X-Men movie, I’m sure there are many people who know how I felt, Ugh. They seriously did not cater these films to any generation of X-Men fans, or to anyone who isn’t 15 and under. They completely pissed on any generation of X-Men comics by using terrible, terrible plots, focusing too much of the movies around Wolverine, changing the characters too much, and leaving out too many great characters, character sub plots and character developments resulting in dull and watered down movies.

George M gave it a7:
It's not nearly as bad as it could have been. Still, Singer's perfect sense of atmosphere that was featured throughout most of the second film is missing, and the ending is waaay overly dramatic. Still fun though.

X-Men: The Last Stand Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

X-Men: The Last Stand
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation